42 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Chicago, III., September 30, 1892. 

 S. P. Bartlett, Secretary State Fish Commission, Quincy, III.: 



Dear Sir — Yours at hand, You wish me to give my experience in en- 

 forcement of the laws for protection of the flsh. I have as brieflj' as pos- 

 sible given you my ideas regarding the matter. 



In my one year's experience as Fish Warden at Pullman I had many 

 chances to study the effects of the protection of fish. Before I was ap- 

 pointed warden, and at the time of my correspondence with you regarding 

 the matter, the Calumet lake and region was filled with nets from ^-ineh 

 to If-inch mesh. They were so thick that they often extended from shore 

 to shore, and it would have been impossible for even a small perch to pass 

 up the river without being caught. The waters had been netted so much 

 tiiat it was a lucky fisherman that could show a string- of one-half dozen 

 small perch after fishing all day with hook and line. 



After receiving my commission as warden, I determined to try and stop 

 this unlawful netting of flsh in the waters of Calumet lake and river, but 

 before I had gone very far I found I had many things to overcome. The 

 very people that would have been benefitted by my efforts thought I was 

 the tool of a few sportsmen, and opposed me all they could. I soon found 

 that the trials of a Fish Warden were many, but I did not give up but 

 kept on making arrests, removing nets and obtaining convictions. The 

 fish in the waters began to increase in size and numbers, the people be- 

 gan to find out that the fishing was improving, that they could go out 

 with hook and line and secure a good string of fish, large ones, something 

 they had not been able to do before in j^ears. Many of them did not even 

 stop to consider the reason of the increase. If they could have followed 

 the warden in his trips, watch him pull up a net here and there, fre- 

 quently the net so hidden that only an expert could find it. or be with 

 him on dark and stormy nights when in a boat after plunkers, I think 

 they would have shown more appreciation of the efforts to protect the flsh, 

 and as is the case frequently, their food. 



When I resigned my position as warden, after making some 50 arrests 

 and securing 45 convictions, removing over 100 nets, I left the waters free 

 of unlawful fishermen. 



The first few arrests I made I had hard work to secure convictions, 

 for the justices of the peace thought that the poor tlshermeu were op- 

 pressed, but after I had taken some fifty men before them for trial, 

 showed them the meshes of the nets in evidence, also the small fish 

 taken by these nets, and the large numl)ers so taken in a comparative 

 small body of water, they began to open their eyes and think the I'oor 

 fisherman was often a robber, and assessed fines commensurate. 



